Beastly Blake

Blake's 'Human Form Divine' has long commanded the spotlight. Beastly Blake shifts focus to the non-human creatures who populate Blake's poetry and designs. The author of 'The Tyger' and 'The Lamb' was equally struck by the 'beastliness' and the beauty of the animal kingdom, the utter otherness of animal subjectivity and the meaningful relationships between humans and other creatures. 'Conversing with the Animal forms of wisdom night & day', Blake fathomed how much they have to teach us about creation and eternity. This collection ranges from real animals in Blake's surroundings, to symbolic creatures in his mythology, to animal presences in his illustrations of Virgil, Dante, Hayley, and Stedman. It makes a third to follow Queer Blake and Sexy Blake in irreverently illuminating blind spots in Blake criticism. Beastly Blake will reward lovers of Blake's writing and visual art, as well as those interested in Romanticism and animal studies.

Helen P. Bruder, amateur, published William Blake and the Daughters of Albion in 1997. She's been thinking about, and working on, Blake and gender ever since. Currently she's also writing limericks on rustic themes.
Tristanne Connolly is Associate Professor of English at St Jerome's, University of Waterloo, Canada. She published William Blake and the Body in 2002 and has since published several articles and edited several essay collections on Blake and on British Romantic literature, particularly on gender and sexuality, and science and medicine.